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Democratisation After Communism: Progress, Problems, Promotion

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Democratisation After Communism: Progress, Problems, Promotion MICHAEL DAUDERSTÄDT/ANDRÉ W.M. GERRITS Democratisation After Communism: Progress, Problems, Promotion t the beginning of the 21st century, Central and Many of the democratic deficiencies in East Cen- AEastern Europe looks decisively more de- tral Europe today have less to do with the rem- mocratic than at any time before in its history. nants of the past than with the intentional activities Many countries that hardly existed as sovereign na- of the post-communist elites. Attaching the »re- tion-states up to ten years ago, let alone as de- form« label to all of the changes that have been mocracies, are now recognised members of the going on in the region since 1990 substitutes a Council of Europe and are about to join the Euro- normative political goal for scholarly analysis. 1 For pean Union. International democracy watch dogs example, it goes beyond the power of imagination such as Freedom House register many of the post- to define as »reforms« the deepest industrial de- communist countries as free or partly free (see ta- pression a European country has ever experienced ble 1). in peace-time, as occurred in Russia, with the in- This optimistic picture has to be qualified sub- crease in poverty, the decrease in education, the stantially though if one takes a closer look at the collapse of health care and the unprecedented whole region. There are important differences drop in life-expectancy. There is no post-com- over time and space. Some countries started de- munist transition. There are only post-communist mocratisation late or half-heartedly (e. g. most of transitions – processes of change which take quite the former Soviet Union) and never made it to real different directions, and which have dramatically democracy, while other countries slipped back into dissimilar outcomes. less democratic states (e. g. Belarus after 1996 un- In what follows, we will first focus on a limited der Aleksandr Lukashenko). Regression is even ob- number of explanatory variables related to the ex- servable with respect to the final years of commu- tent of democratisation in the region: the level of nism. Whereas Mikhail Gorbachev and the changes socio-economic development, the nature of com- which he had initiated had more or less forced the munist rule and the pattern of transition (inclu- communist leaderships in the Soviet republics to ding the type of governance), as well as the issue of accept at least a modicum of openness and accoun- nationalism and national minorities. We will then tability, under post-communist conditions similar deal with the apparently close relation between po- pressures remained absent. The Soviet Union at litical and economic reform, and finally, we will dis- the end of the 1980s was probably more »free« cuss some specific features of post-communist de- than most of the post-Soviet republics ten years la- mocracy (or democracies), and thereby compare ter. the relatively »successful« countries of Central Eu- A survey of the Central and Eastern European rope with the considerably more ambivalent and countries shows a geographic gradient in democra- tisation: the more you move within the region to- wards the South and the East, the less rapid, pro- found and sustainable the transition towards de- mocracy seems to be. In fact, there is no common 1. Milada Anna Vachudová and Tim Snyder, »Are linear transition process with a preordained out- Transitions Transitory? Two Types of Political Change come, i.e. a market economy and a more or less li- in Eastern Europe Since 1989«, in: East European Poli- beral democracy, a process that would allow defi- tics and Societies, 11 (Winter 1997) 1, p. 1. See also M. Steven Fish, »Democratization’s Requisites: The ning of all obstacles, challenges and problems Postcommunist Experience«, in: Post-Soviet Affairs, along the way as the legacy of the communist past. 14 (July–September 1998) 3. IPG 4/2000 Michael Dauderstädt/André W. M. Gerrits, Democratisation After Communism: Progress, Problems, Promotion 361 Table 1: The Development of Political Freedom in Central and Eastern Europe Since 1989 Country/Year 1989– 1990– 1991– 1992– 1993– 1994– 1995– 1996– 1997– 1998– 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 Albania NF NF PF PF PF PF PF PF PF PF Armenia – – PF PF PF PF PF PF PF PF Azerbaijan – – PF PF NF NF NF NF PF PF Belarus – – PF PF PF PF PF NF NF NF Bosnia-Herzegovina – – – NF NF NF NF PF PF PF Bulgaria NF PF FFFFFFFF Croatia – – PF PF PF PF PF PF PF PF Czech Republic ––––FFFFFF Czechoslovakia NF F F F –––––– Estonia – – F PF FFFFFF Georgia – – NF PF PF PF PF PF PF PF Hungary PF FFFFFFFFF Kazakhstan – – PF PF PF NF NF NF NF NF Kyrgyz Republic – – PF PF PF PF PF PF PF PF Latvia – – F PF PF FFFFF Lithuania – – FFFFFFFF Macedonia – – – PF PF PF PF PF PF PF Moldova – – PF PF PF PF PF PF PF PF Poland PF FFFFFFFFF Romania NF NF PF PF PF PF PF F F F Russia – – PF PF PF PF PF PF PF PF Slovakia ––––PFFFPFPFF Slovenia – – FFFFFFFF Tajikistan – – PF NF NF NF NF NF NF NF Turkmenistan – – PF NF NF NF NF NF NF NF Ukraine – – PF PF PF PF PF PF PF PF Uzbekistan – – PF NF NF NF NF NF NF NF F = free; PF = partly free; NF = not free: Source: Freedom House (www.freedomhouse.org) problematic record of the Russian Federation. rial or Ottoman rule, have started nation-building and industrialisation later and have had virtually no substantial democratic experience.2 Subsequently, Democracy and Development urbanisation, education and the emergence of a ci- vil society were delayed or even deliberately op- Historical differences in economic, social and poli- tical development are often put forward to explain the differences in democratisation between Cen- 2. Attila Agh (Emerging Democracies in East Central tral Europe on the one hand, and Southern and Europe and the Balkans. Cheltenham-Northampton Eastern Europe on the other. While countries like 1998, p. 6) argues that the transition of 1989–92 was a Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland have had re-democratisation for the countries of Central Europe long, albeit interrupted, traditions of statehood, and a democratisation for the rest. This to some extent explains the differences within the transition process economic development and even democracy, the itself as well as post-transition development, in particular other countries have been subject to Russian impe- the scope and speed of consolidation of democracy. 362 Michael Dauderstädt/André W. M. Gerrits, Democratisation After Communism: Progress, Problems, Promotion IPG 4/2000 pressed. For many less developed countries in the appear in the first three columns. This indicates region, modernisation started effectively but un- that the extent of democratic and economic re- der communism. form and the level of human development (in- If one applies the democratisation index of Fre- come, life expectancy, literacy, etc.) achieved are edom House to the various post-communist coun- closely related. Indeed, there is a rather stringent tries the following picture emerges for 1998/99: al- division between the »haves« and the »have-nots« together, poorer countries with a per capita in this respect. income of less than 1000 dollar tend to be slow The picture becomes even more telling if we democratisers. However, as a group, the low- compare an aggregate rating of political and eco- income countries show very different levels of nomic reform with the countries’ ethnic homogen- democratisation, and the good democracies have eity, geographic location and religious character- very different levels of income (e.g. Slovenia has an istics. The leading position of the Central Euro- income per capita that is three times higher than pean countries emerges beyond any doubt. that of Poland). Among the historical conditions mentioned, the level of socio-economic development is gene- 3. The seminal work on economic development lead- rally perceived as the single most important »re- ing to democracy is by Seymour Martin Lipset, in parti- quisite« of democratisation.3 Empirical evidence cular his article »Social Requisites of Democracy: Eco- nomic Development and Political Legitimacy«, in: seems to confirm this. It is the exception, rather American Political Science Review, 53 (1959), pp. 69–105, than the rule, that democracy is established and is and his Political Man, New York 1960. The significance able to survive in less developed places (e. g. In- of civil society was pointed out by Rober Putnam et al., dia).4 However, it is not the only, and certainly not Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern an isolated, factor in explaining the potential of de- Italy. Princeton 1993. Ronald Inglehart, Modernization and Postmodernization. Cultural, Economic, and Politi- mocratisation. Table 2, which presents a rather un- cal Change in 43 Societies, Princeton 1997, and Larry sophisticated ranking of countries in terms of poli- Diamond, Developing Democracy Toward Consolidation, tical and economic reform, geographical location, Baltimore/London 1999, have analysed the condi- ethnic diversity and democratisation, suggests a tions of democratisation and democracy more generally. 4. See Adam Przeworski et al. »What makes Demo- number of causal links. cracies Endure«, in: Journal of Democracy 7 (1996) 1. Only fourteen of the 27 countries in the region 5. Steven Fish, op. cit., p. 230. Table 2: Democratic and Economic Reform, and Ethnic Homogeneity Democratic Reform Human Development Economic Reform Ethnic Homogeneity Score (1997) Index value (1997) Score (1996) Score (1996) 1. Czech Republic 1. Slovenia1. Czech Republic 1. Poland 2. Hungary 2. Czech Republic 2. Estonia 2. Albania 3. Poland 3. Slovakia 3. Hungary 3. Czech Republic – Slovenia4. Hungary 4. Poland 4. Slovenia 5. Estonia 5. Poland 5. Slovakia 5. Hungary – Latvia 6.
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